Josh Brolin takes on man who murdered Harvey Milk

Saturday

Nov 22, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 22, 2008 at 10:02 PM

On Nov. 27, 1978, Dan White, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, entered City Hall, walked to the office of Mayor George Moscone, and shot him in the chest and head. He then walked to the other side of the building, approached City Supervisor Harvey Milk — the first openly gay person to be elected to that level of office — and killed him with the same gun.

Ed Symkus

On Nov. 27, 1978, Dan White, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, entered City Hall, walked to the office of Mayor George Moscone, and shot him in the chest and head. He then walked to the other side of the building, approached City Supervisor Harvey Milk — the first openly gay person to be elected to that level of office — and killed him with the same gun.

The story of Milk’s amazing rise as an activist — for gays, seniors, the Chinese populace — and tragic fall has been kicking around Hollywood for years, especially after the release of the excellent 1984 documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk.”

Tom Cruise was once offered the part of Dan White, but the project never came together. Later on White was going to be played by Matt Damon, but scheduling conflicts arose. When Sean Penn, who plays Milk in the new film “Milk,” suggested to director Gus Van Sant that Josh Brolin, fresh off a batch of rave reviews in “No Country for Old Men,” would be good in the part, the script was sent to him.

“I read it immediately,” says Brolin, whose voice is a bit croaky, and who is scarfing down packets of Chinese herbs and water chasers for his cold. “I was very moved by it, and I cried at the end. Then my daughter and I watched the documentary, and we were extremely moved by that. So I just said yes.”

The same wasn’t true of his starring role in Oliver Stone’s “W.,” the story of George W. Bush.

“I said no to that part for a long time,” says Brolin, laughing, and coughing. “Because of what I perceived that it was gonna be. Because of what I perceived Oliver to be. But when I finally read the script, I was blown away about how human it was, that it was more a manifestation of the question how did this guy become president of the United States … twice! How did this happen?

“I could have cared less about Bush,” he adds. “I had written him off in my mind. Then I realized how irresponsible that was. So a lot of things came into play that made me want to do that movie.”

Part of Brolin’s reasoning for taking both parts was the challenge of playing real people, and part was because he wanted to show their human side.

“It’s harder to play a real character,” he says. “There’s more pressure. There’s some form of wanting to do it justice, especially with Bush. He’s so in everybody’s psyche, and there’s so much hatred and dislike for him, globally.”

He laughs quietly and adds, “That was a little disconcerting to me. It was how can I pull this off? It gave me hives, but it was the greater challenge. So you feel a responsibility that you don’t necessarily feel in something like ‘No Country.’ ”

Brolin talks specifically about his approach to playing Dan White — a disturbed and confused man who had voted against gay rights, was saddled with family problems and had a very difficult time at his job, including not getting along with Milk or Moscone.

“I think it’s important for any character to come across as human, unless you’re doing a caricature of someone,” he says. “I find it important to care about what the person’s going through. I could have played Dan White as he was, the moment that he decided to get the gun to go kill those people. But that would be very one-dimensional to me. He was a sad story. He slept on the couch a lot at home. At first he was a big fish in a small pond in his district, and then once he was elevated and he was in City Hall, he was truly a guppy in a sea of very skilled politicians. That’s much more interesting to me. I wanted to humanize the character.”

Brolin, who has been acting in films since 1985 — his first part was as the older brother to Sean Astin in Richard Donner’s “The Goonies” — has worked regularly and paid a lot of dues over the years. He’s recently seen it all come together with well received roles in “American Gangster,” “Grindhouse” and “Melinda & Melinda.” But, he insists, his personal gratification, and his only goal, has been to work with great filmmakers.

“I started out working with a really amazing filmmaker,” he says, referring to “Goonies” very hands-on executive producer Steven Spielberg. “I was extremely spoiled in that auspicious beginning. And the next time it happened when I was working with David O. Russell on ‘Flirting with Disaster.’ I remember watching that movie and thinking, ‘Thank God I’m in this film.’ It wasn’t about whether I did a good job. I felt like I did a good enough job not to stand out. I loved that the part was written for an Asian guy and I got it. And I loved that when I said yes to [playing] Bush, there were all these blogs saying, ‘Brolin? Why?’ I like that. It’s a great challenge for me. It gives me a little more incentive.”